An Unexpected Haiku Poet

Richard Wright's literary reputation was secured in 1940 with the publication of Native Son. The novel became a bestseller with 250,000 hardcover copies sold within three weeks. It was selected by the Book of the Month Club in March, 1940.

Native Son remains at number 71 on the American Library Association's list of the 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1900-2000. The Modern Library places it at number 20 on its list of the 100 best novels of the 20th century. And Time Magazine included it in the 100 best English language novels from 1923 to 2005.

Many people are surprised when they learn that
the author of such a powerful novel as Native Son also wrote haiku poetry. In fact, Wright, who only took up haiku in the last year or two of his life, wrote over 4,000 haiku!

In the midst of a grueling battle with amoebic dysentery, Wright reviewed his poems and chose his personal favorites for publication, 817 in all. It took 38 years for the collection to be published as HAIKU -- This Other World. Will we have wait another 38 years to see the other 3,200 poems?

Richard Wright had wonderful gifts of description and humor, as these examples will confirm.

Upon a pine tree
A snail slides out of its shell
To witness the spring.

A soft wind at dawn
Lifts one dry leaf and lays it
Upon another.

The dog's violent sneeze
Fails to rouse a single fly
On his mangy back.

As the sun goes down,
a green melon splits open
and juice trickles out.

A butterfly makes
The sunshine even brighter
With fluttering wings.

With a twitching nose
A dog reads a telegram
On a wet tree trunk.

The crow flew so fast
That he left his lovely caw
Behind in the fields.

After seven days,
The corpse in the coffin
Turned on its side.

I almost forgot
To hang up an autumn moon
Over the mountain.

Booking through Thursday

Many blogs are providing "memes," which are technically ideas or behaviors which spread from person to person within a culture. In the blogging world, a meme is a writing prompt - sometimes humorous, sometimes thought-provoking - which originates at one blog and then becomes the basis for posting at other blogs. Last Friday, I used a modified form of the meme "Fill-In Friday."


Today, let's do "Booking through Thursday." The home blog is btt2.wordpress.com You may post your responses in the Comments section there, as I hope you will post them in the same place here.


BBT has only one question this week:


What is the best book you have never read? Because I've been dealing with a difficult to treat neurological condition since August, I'm opting for humor. The best book I've never read is yet to be published. It is George Carlin's Parting Shots: Still Laughing, to be published this spring. Yes, Carlin can be vulgar and raw; but he "has a way with words" unlike any other comedian. Others have shown flashes of his brilliance, but Carlin is FUNNY. Sometimes the thing I need most, even from a book, is a good belly laugh.


I would also add in the 'need to read humor' category e. e. cumming's Complete Poems, 1904-62. Again, cummings had a wonderfully imaginative way with words. Have you discovered serious poetry as a 'serious' source of humor?


Finally, I want to acknowledge my love of haiku by mentioning the four volume set Haiku by R. H. Blyth, originally published in English between 1949 and 1952. Blyth had an excellent understanding of Japanese culture. He spent part of WWII in a Japanese internment camp, and was even invited to tutor the Crown Prince. He recognized the dominant influence of Zen Buddhism in Japanese arts. These combined experiences produced fine translations of Japanese poetry.


Among the first to be influenced by Blyth's work were the Beat Poets in San Francisco and New York. Blyth remains a formative source for American haiku poetry today. I've not read the four volume set, but I plan to do so.

Lenten Haiku

to lend God
forty of the year's best days -
a glorious spring

created of soil
destined for earth
ashes to ashes

relevance, spectacle, popularity,
temptations of every heart's
wilderness

the days lengthen
sunlight and warmth -
time to wrestle with darkness

a final meal
among best friends -
betrayal on a full stomach

sunrise
a cock crows three times
sunset

a garden tomb
sealed against light -
the light within shatters the seal

Lenten Devotional Reading

Lent is upon us this week. I invite you to join me in an ancient practice as part of our preparation for Holy Week and Easter: devotional reading. Out of the abundance of materials, I recommend two prayer books that have been helpful to me.

Lent and Easter Wisdom from Henri J. M. Nouwen, edited by Judy Bauer.
A national survey of clergy recognized Nouwen as the spiritual theologian who had most influenced them.

Nouwen took seriously the compassionate presence of God in the joys and sorrows of life. His own years held plenty of each, and he experienced the same kind of faith crises that many of us do. He had a nearly fatal accident on an icy roadway while he was helping a handicapped boy. A car mirror struck Nouwen a heavy blow. In his book, Beyond the Mirror: Reflections on Life and Death, Nouwen admitted that it was not love that kept him clinging to life, but "unresolved anger."

Dozens of such honest explorations are found in Lent and Easter Wisdom. Each daily reflection includes a brief insight by Nouwen, supported by Scripture, prayer, and a suggested activity for spiritual growth.

The Glenstal Abbey Book of Prayer
Glenstal Abbey is a Benedictine monastery located in County Limerick. It houses a secondary school, home to over two hundred students. The grounds include Glenstal Castle (Normanesque), lakes, forests, and an old terraced walled garden featuring a 'bible garden.'

The Benedictine spirituality at Glenstal is influenced by the earthiness of Celtic spirituality, reflected in The Book of Prayer. A companion Book of Icons reveals an Orthodox influence.

The prayer book is not restricted in use to the season of Lent. There are prayers for Sunday through Monday, a section for the great festivals of the Christian year, prayers and blessings for the variety of needs and occasions that arise in life, and a selection of psalms for centering and meditating.

For information about the monastery and the way of life of its monks, click here.



The church's additions
to the blessings of spring -
prayer, almsgiving, fasting

Welcome!

new year's insight
or perennial delusion -
wisdom and happiness through blogging

Slog through another blog? I was just planning to cut back on my feeds, find some more entertaining reads, and save my brain from PC-induced drain.

We live in a word-dependent culture, don't we? Spend a few minutes in a staff meeting, a family Thanksgiving gathering, or a Protestant worship service -- words piled upon words. Good words, many of them: welcome, congratulations, shared sorrow, gentle guidance and firm hope.

Too often, however, we are not only word-dependent, but imagination-starved. The words are flat, the ideas are predictable, and the conversations fail to inspire or challenge us. One reason for these outcomes is the collective disengagement of our imaginations.

The imagination reveals meaning and mystery to us in ways that rational thought cannot. We learn different ways of seeing, listening, and speaking. We allow ourselves to think new thoughts, and most importantly, to think no thoughts.

So, another blog with more words; but I envision a distinctive purpose and method. The Pine Tree Notebook is my attempt to connect the dots among three centers of focus: the practices of our faith; the precise, random beauty of nature; and the ability of our baptized imaginations to open our personal worlds - including faith, nature, and our inner selves - to new experience and expression.

Strange that so few ever come to the woods to see how the pine lives and grows and spires, lifting its evergreen arms to the light. Henry David Thoreau, The Maine Woods